The game begins with your character and a beautiful girl named Sara sneaking around a ship in the middle of an impressive battle: an Inquisitor, a very powerful mage and a Titan who proves to be even stronger and destroys the ship. Minutes later your character wakes up surrounded by dead bodies, to find out that only him and Sara had survived the accident and arrived on a small island – Faranga. And that’s where your adventure starts.
Pretty soon you will find out that everything in the world of Risen looks and feels like a revamped and slightly improved world of Gothic: from the visuals to the dialogs, from the factions to the quests and even the plot, everything is Gothic. And that’s not a bad thing, especially if you loved the series in the first place.
What I loved about Risen was the fact that, despite failing to bring anything new to the genre or to those that loved Gothic, it did everything quite right: the number of bugs is minimal, the quests are quite varied and some of them are a real joy to complete, the game world is huge and the progression rate is not amazingly fast, therefore allowing you to explore all the hidden caverns on the game’s map in order to get that extra level.
What I didn’t like here, even though it will probably help players who like to do a bit of exploring at low levels, was the fact that the Harbor Town, probably the first place you’ll choose to visit, literally keeps its gates closed and your character won’t be allowed to get out until a faction was chosen and a few levels have already risen under its belt. It might be realistic, but it kills the variety any new game should offer (I’m talking about variety from a visual point of view, don’t worry about the quests, they’re all unique and you’ll have quite a handful to solve!)
Graphics-wise, Risen is a joy to watch, just like all the games created by Piranha Bytes, and you should expect those bits of magic that will simply make you stop and admire: a wonderful cascade, the view from the top of a cliff, the scary forest during a powerful storm… all these add to the game’s overall value, as well as the flawless sound effect. Personally, I didn’t become a big fan of the soundtrack, but it wasn’t disturbing, so I’ll let it be.
Conclusion
But overall, if you are a fan of the RPG genre and you want a lengthy, challenging game with outstanding visuals, a great character progression and lots of enemies set in a huge world, Risen is a must buy!
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Would you like to purchase this game? Get it from Amazon.